Royal Philips Electronics has just announced the winner of the 2011 Light World Tour, a program created by the company for professional lighting designers to share visual inspiration with each other online.
Photo: www.lightworldtour.com
The top ten finalists were determined by Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter user votes over a two-month period. The winner, Paula Rainha, a lighting designer and trained architect from Lisbon, Portugal was chosen by an international panel of experts. They were Martin Lupton, co-founder of Light Collective and member of the Philips Light World Tour expert panel, Rogier van der Heide, Vice President and Chief Design Officer of Philips Lighting and Tai Lee Siang, Group Managing Director of Ong & Ong.
In September 2011, Rainha will go on a three-month world tour funded and supported by Philips to visit the best lighting sights, installations and events. She will also communicate with leading designers, architects, technology experts and artists in the field. Rainha will share her experience while on the journey in her blog, posting photo and video and tweeting.
Photo: www.lightworldtour.com
Martin Lupton commented, «After a lot of discussion with the other judges, Paula finally emerged as the winner — it was her desire to connect with people as well as looking at inspirational lighting that finally set Paula apart from the other entrants. I look forward to seeing and reading the results of her travels, especially those relating to how light can cross borders and if it can be a universal language.»
The competition was launched on June 1 and since then more than 60 international entrants joined the initiative, describing what lighting inspires them most, from natural wonders to professional installations and artworks to events. They submitted their favorite lighting sights to the Light World Tour site. The website launched as the platform for the competition is expected to become a permanent basis for the global lighting professionals’ community.
In July Philips presented a lightning innovation: luminous textile panels.